Programming in C

1. Programming in C Input / Output

2. stdin, stdout, stderr • When your C program begins to execute, three input/output devices are opened automatically. • stdin • The “standard input” device, usually your keyboard • stdout • The “standard output” device, usually your monitor • stderr • The “standard error” device, usually your monitor • Some C library I/O functions automatically use these devices

3. Formatted Console Output • In C, formatted output is created using the printf( ) function. • printf( ) outputs text to stdout • The basic function call to printf( ) is of the formprintf( format, arg1, arg2, … ); where the format is a string containing • conversion specifications • literals to be printed

4. printf( ) conversions Conversions specifications begin with % and end with a conversion character. Between the % and the conversion character MAY be, in order • A minus sign specifying left-justification • The minimum field width • A period separating the field width and precision • The precision that specifies • Maximum characters for a string • Number of digits after the decimal for a floating point • Minimum number of digits for an integer • An h for “short” or an l (letter ell) for long See K&R section 7.2 and appendix section B1.2

5. Common printf( ) Conversions • %d -- the int argument is printed as a decimal number • %u -- the int argument is printed as an unsigned number • %s -- prints characters from the string until ‘\0’ is seen or the number of characters in the (optional) precision have been printed (more on this later) • %f -- the double argument is printed as a floating point number • %x, %X -- the int argument is printed as a hexadecimal number (without the usual leading “0x”) • %c - the int argument is printed as a single character • %p - the pointer argument is printed (implementation dependent)

6. printf( ) Examples int anInt = 5678; double aDouble = 4.123; #define NAME “Bob” /* what is the output from each printf( ) */ printf (“%d is a large number\n”, anInt); printf (“%8d is a large number\n”, anInt); printf (“%-8d is a large number\n”, anInt); printf (“%10.2f is a double\n”, aDouble); printf( “The sum of %d and %8.4f is %12.2f\n”, anInt, aDouble, anInt + aDouble); printf (“Hello %s\n”, NAME);

7. Formatted Output Example • Use field widths to align output in columns int i; for (i = 1 ; i < 5; i++) printf("%2d %10.6f %20.15f\n", i,sqrt(i),sqrt(i)); 12 1234567890 12345678901234567890 1 1.000000 1.000000000000000 2 1.414214 1.414213562373095 3 1.732051 1.732050807568877 4 2.000000 2.000000000000000

8. Keyboard Input In C, keyboard input is accomplished using the scanf( ) function. scanf reads user input from stdin. Calling scanf( ) is similar to calling printf( ) scanf( format, arg1, arg2, ... ) The format string has a similar structure to the format string in printf( ). The arguments are the addresses of the variables into which the input is store. See K & R section 7.4 and Appendix section B1.3 for a detailed description of scanf( )

9. scanf( ) format string The scanf( ) format string usually contains conversion specifications that tell scanf( ) how to interpret the next “input field”. An input field is a string of non-whitespace characters. The format string usually contains • Blanks or tabs which are ignored • Ordinary characters which are expected to match the next (non-whitespace) character input by the user • Conversion specifications usually consisting • % character indicating the beginning of the conversion • An optional h, l (ell) or L • A conversion character which indicates how the input field is to be interpreted.

10. Common scanf( ) conversions • %d -- a decimal (integer) number • %u - an unsigned decimal (integer) number • %x -- a hexadecimal number • The matching argument is the address of an int • May be preceded by h to indicate that the argument is the address of a short or by l (ell) to indicate that the argument is the address of a long rather than an int • %f, %e -- a floating point number with optional sign, optional decimal point, and optional exponent • The matching argument is the address of a float • May be preceded by l (ell) to indicate the argument is of the address of a double rather than a float • %s -- a word (a string delimited by white space, not an entire line) • The matching argument is the address of a char or the name of a char array • The caller must insure the array is large enough to for the input string and the terminating \0 character • More on this later • %c - a single character • The matching arguments is the address of a char • Does not skip over white-space • More on this later

11. scanf( ) examples int age; double gpa; char initial; printf(“ input your middle initial: “); scanf (“%c”, &initial ); // note & printf(“Input your age: “); scanf( “%d”, &age ); printf(“ input your gpa: “); scanf (“%lf”, &gpa );

12. Unix input redirection • By default, stdin is associated with the user’s keyboard, but Unix allows us to redirect stdin to read data from a file when your program is executed. All scanf( ) statements in your program read from this file instead of the user’s keyboard with no change to your code. • Redirecting input from a file is useful for debugging -- you don’t have to continually retype your input. • Suppose your program’s name is Project1 and you wish to get your input from a file named data1. To redirect stdin to read from data1, use this command at the Unix prompt unix>Project1 < data1

13. Unix output redirection • By default, stdout is associated with the user’s console, but Unix allows us to redirect stdout to output text to a file when your program is executed. All printf( ) statements in your program output to this file instead of the user’s console, otherwise your program is unaffected. • Suppose your program’s name is Project1 and you wish to write your output to a file named logfile1. To redirect stdout to write to logfile1, use this command at the Unix prompt unix>Project1 > logfile • Can you redirect both input and output?

14. Text File I/O • Reading and writing from/to a text file is similar to getting input from stdin (with scanf) and writing to stdout (with printf). • Reading data from a text file is accomplished with the function fscanf( ). This function works the same as scanf( ), but requires an additional parameter which is a “handle” to the file. • Reading a line from a text file is accomplished using the fgets( ) function. This function is similar to gets( ) but requires a “handle” to a file and a max character count. • Similarly, writing to a text file is accomplished with the function fprintf() which works the same as printf( ), but also requires a “handle” to the file to be read.

15. Opening and Closing To read or write from a text file using fscanf( ), fegets( ) or fprintf( ), the file must first be opened using fopen( ). The file should be closed using fclose( ) when all I/O is complete. fopen( ) returns a handle to the file as the type FILE* (a pointer to a FILE struct) which is then used as the argument to fscanf(), fgets( ), fprintf( ) and fclose( ). The return value from fopen( ) should be checked to insure that the file was in fact opened.

16. fopen( ) • fopen( ) requires two parameters • The name of the text file to be opened • The text file open “mode” • “r” - open the file for reading only • “w” - create the file for writing; if the file exists, discard the its contents • “a” - append; open or create the file for writing at the end • “r+” - open the file for reading and writing • “w+” - create the file for reading and writing; if the file exists, discard its contents • “a+” - open or create the file for reading or writing at the end • See K & R appendix B1.1

17. Using fopen( ) • Open the file named “bob.txt” for reading FILE * myFile = fopen( “bob.txt”, “r”); • If fopen( ) fails, the special value NULL is returned. All calls to fopen should be checked FILE *myFIle = fopen (“bob.txt”, “r”) If (myFile == NULL) { /* handle the error */ }

18. fscanf.c #include <stdio.h> #include <stdlib.h> /* for “exit” */ int main ( ) { double x ; FILE*ifp ; /* try to open the file for reading, check if successful */ /* if it wasn't opened exit gracefully */ ifp = fopen("test_data.dat", "r") ; if (ifp == NULL) { printf ("Error opening test_data.dat\n"); exit (-1); } fscanf(ifp, "%lf", &x) ; /* read one double from the file */ fclose(ifp); /* close the file when finished */ /* check to see what you read */ printf("x = %.2f\n", x) ; return 0; }

19. Detecting end-of-filewith fscanf • When reading an unknown number of data elements from a file using fscanf( ), we need a way to determine when the file has no more data to read, i.e, we have reached the “end of file”. • Fortunately, the return value from fscanf( ) holds the key. fscanf( ) returns an integer which is the number of data elements read from the file. If end-of-file is detected the integer return value is the special value EOF

20. EOF example code /* code snippet that reads an undetermined number of integer student ages from a file and prints them out as an example of detecting EOF */ FILE *inFile; int age; inFile = fopen( “myfile”, “r” ); if (inFile == NULL) { printf ("Error opening myFile\n"); exit (-1); } while ( fscanf(infile, “%d”, &age ) != EOF ) printf( “%d\n”, age ); fclose( inFile );

21. fprintf.c /* fprintf.c */ #include <stdio.h> #include <stdlib.h> /* exit */ int main ( ) { double pi = 3.14159 ; FILE *ofp ; /* try to open the file for writing, check if successful */ /* if it wasn't exit gracefully */ ofp = fopen("test.out", “w") ; if (ofp == NULL) { printf ("Error opening test.out\n"); exit (-1); } /* write to the file using printf formats */ fprintf(ofp, “Hello World\n”); fprintf(ofp, “PI is defined as %6.5lf\n”, pi); fclose(ofp); /* close the file when finished reading */ return 0; }

22. fprintf vs printffscanf vs scanf • Function prototypes are identical except that fprintf and fscanf require FILE* parameter • Format strings identical • fscanf, fprintf are more general • printf can be written using fprintf • fprintf( stdout, ....) • Similarly, scanf can be written using fscanf • fscanf( stdin, .... )

23. Errors to stderr • Errors should be output to stderr using fprintf rather to stdout using printf( ) • Do this • fprintf( stderr, “this is the error message\n” ); instead of this • printf( “this is the error message\n” ); • For example ofp = fopen("test.out", “w") ; if (ofp == NULL) { fprintf (stderr, "Error opening test.out\n"); exit (-1); }